Africa needs to modernise or forever be ‘dark’

There is something about Olufemi Taiwo’s book, Africa Must Be Modern: The Modern Imperative in Contemporary Africa, A Manifesto (2014) that will make you read it even if you suspect, from the beginning, that it is another pessimistic rant about Africa.

Olufemi is frank, straight-to-the-point and almost agitated in his analysis of why Africa remains the continent to be pitied as the rest of the world marches into the future with better quality of life for their people – better housing, medical care, nutrition, schooling, security against vagaries of nature, rule of law, equity and so on.

Indeed, even Afro-optimists like me would find it quite difficult to disagree with Olufemi’s thesis, which offers in this language and style: “The thesis of this book is very simple and straightforward: there is nothing that is wrong with Africa at present that a serious engagement with and acceptance of modernity cannot solve or, at least, contribute to solving.

I argue in what follows: Africa must be modern. Let me say it again: Africa must be modern. And it must be modern now; not tomorrow; not in future; not in the far future.”

COMPELLING CASE

Olufemi’s argument can be summarised thus: Africa lags behind the rest of the world in progress because it is caught in a time warp, refusing to modernise, instead remaining beholden to poorly or non-defined notions of African traditions, the lethargy of its intellectuals and the greed of its politicians.

For instance, he correctly points out that African scholars have been the loudest in promoting the “nativist” theory that claims Africa’s “specialness”.

The claim of Africa being special recalls the continent’s colonial heritage as the main problem why Africa is underdeveloped.

Indeed, in his other book, How Colonialism Pre-empted Modernity in Africa (2010) Olufemi shows how colonialism negatively impacted the path and potential for modernity in many African societies.

But Olufemi’s gripe with the nativists is their penchant to look to the past instead of today, now and the future and proffering solutions to the continent’s problems. Ironically, these scholars seek endorsement for their claims and theories in Europe and Asia.

So, today, going to a conference in Europe, America or Asia is more prestigious than hosting one in an African university; African scholars seem unable to start and sustain academic journals, instead bragging about which journals in the West they have published in.

It is difficult to dispute these claims considering how many African academics “consult for” or offer to be informants for young postgraduate scholars from the West/Asia, who later become the senior African scholars’ academic referees.

The idea is that despite the claims, Africans lack pride in themselves and their institutions.

One of the most compelling cases that Olufemi gives of how Africans haven’t bothered to enter modernity is our inability or refusal to count.

Now, this sounds simple and probably uninteresting. But think about it. How much money do you use to buy credit for your mobile phone?

Why do you think one of the questions you have to answer when filling the information form for a visa to some European countries is: how many relatives do you support and how much of your income do you give them?

How many times have we heard about African communities where it is “taboo” to know how many children a man has? Olufemi suggests that the inability to understand the worth of statistics explains the tragedy of African cities.

PERENNIAL PROBLEMS

How many houses does Nairobi have? How many cars are registered to be used for public and private transport?

How many people live in Nairobi? I bet the county government doesn’t know the answers to these questions. Olufemi reminds us that although Nigeria prides itself in having the biggest population in Africa, it really doesn’t know how many Nigerians are alive today.

Consider Kenya. How many of the governors clamouring for “Pesa Mashinani” know how many adult men and women, girls and boys are in the county; how many of these citizens are educated, how much food they may need in a year’s time? 

The point Olufemi is making about counting is that without counting we can’t plan for development.

The solution to these seeming intractable problems for Africa – problems that have seen Africa receive some of the largest development aid and support from the rest of the world but remains stuck in poverty, violence, displacements of millions of its citizens and death – is to consider the “triumph of procedure over outcome.”

His proposition is summarised thus: “The modern era is notorious for its privileging of form over content, process over outcome, procedure over result.”

The idea here is that Africa has to institutionalise habits, cultures and laws that would ensure that irrespective of time or person involved, any outcome desired would be realised if the right process is followed.

Consider the perennial problems of elections in African countries. Why can’t African countries have electoral commissions that outlast a president or two?

It is a well-known fact that the fear of some other tribes assuming power in many parts of Africa is because those in power can’t built institutions and establish procedures that would guarantee fairness in the distribution of collective resources whilst in office.

This is how Ivory Coast, a long time “progressive and developing” African state disintegrated. And you can add DRC in that mix. Nigeria will never go beyond its current chaos because of this same curse. 

Of course Olufemi knows that Africanists will foam at the mouth, curse him and call him a stooge of the West.

STUCK IN MISERY

But an honest and pragmatic look at Africa often leaves one wondering whether Africa’s problems can be blamed on anything but Africans themselves.

How can one seek to offer any reason, apart from sheer greed, why Nigeria can’t supply enough oil to its citizens; why African academics and politicians continue to claim that the problem of Somalia’s collapsed state is complex – no, it is simple.

Somalis must resolve it or remain stuck in their misery; how the South Sudanese couldn’t learn from a rich history of Africa’s post-colonial state collapses of the 1970s; why African leaders still believe in the myth that a centralised state is better than federalism; if there is an explanation for the DRC’s misery whilst it sits on the world’s granary of minerals apart from its own people’s lack of planning and greed?

You may disagree with Olufemi’s thesis, but I guess you would be doing so because he simply speaks truth.